Several different arrangements have been used or proposed for initially positioning the transfer card, and associated tie-string end, in relation to the front of the gown where they will be readily accessible to the person donning the gown to be handed off by that person to an assistant. The assistant can be a circulating nurse who need not be scrubbed in order to preserve sterility but who can grasp the card and use it to pass the tie-string around the back of the gown for hand-off of the tie-string itself to the person donning the gown. In Wichman U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,214, a transfer card is removably received in a pocket on the front of the gown. In Newman U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,207, a transfer card and associated tie-string are allowed to droop from a "tunnel loop" into which a portion of the tie string is temporarily tucked. In Allen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,596, a transfer card is releasably attached to the ends of both tie-strings. In Crowley et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,818, a transfer card is also releasably attached to two strings, but only one of the two strings to which the card is attached is a tie-string. Crowley does provide a second tie-string for the gown, so that a total of three strings is used in this construction. In Landry et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,468, again, a transfer card is attached to two strings and only one functions as a tie string, the other being a very short string or "tab". Landry provides a single long tie string intended to fully surround the gown when it is donned and tied, and a double-sided adhesive tape releasably holds the belt near a side margin of the gown.
While some of these constructions are believed to have enjoyed substantial commercial use, they are subject to various disadvantages. In the design where the transfer card is received in a pocket on the front of the gown, there are labor and material costs associated with providing the pocket on the front of the gown and positioning the card in the pocket.
In the design where the tie-string and associated card are allowed to droop from a "tunnel loop," the weight of the card may tend to prematurely pull the tie-string and card from the tunnel loop, thereby risking contamination by allowing the tie-string to drop below waist level. Accepted standards of operating room practice require replacement of a gown when this happens. Also, there are labor and material costs associated with providing the tunnel loop and tucking the tie-string which receives the card into the tunnel loop.
In the designs where the transfer card is releasably attached to the ends of both tie-strings or to one tie-string and another special string, the parts must be arranged in this condition during manufacture of the gowns, with associated costs and assembly problems. Furthermore, when the gown is donned, the card must be selectively removed from one or the other of the two strings while temporarily maintaining the connection with the other string. In other words, a sequential release of the card must occur, first from one string and then from the other. Unless special arrangements are made to assure that the release will be sequential, the operation of the design will be unreliable.
It is also known in the prior art to adhesively mount transfer devices adjacent a rear side margin of a surgical gown. In Collins U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,716, an adhesive tape or, alternatively, a "spot of adhesive" is used to releasably mount a "protective member" which functions similarly to a transfer card. However this "protective member" cannot be grasped and removed by the person donning the gown, and an unsterile assistant who does grasp it must be careful to do so in a way that avoids any contact with the gown or else sterility at that location on the gown is destroyed. Furthermore, release of the "protective member" from the gown undesireably exposes a sticky surface of the adhesive. Such exposure may, for example, result in the "protective member" sticking to the hand or sleeve of the assistant who grasps the "protective member."